Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Re: How to respond to anti-GNU trolls?

From:

Matt Lee

Subject:

Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Re: How to respond to anti-GNU trolls?

Date:

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:36:55 +0000

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Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (X11/20071022)

Tim Dobson wrote:
>> First I've never heard (or seen written) GNU/OpenSolaris before today,
Strange - Sun are distributing it.
http://get.opensolaris.org/ - also, its website? http://www.gnusolaris.org/
>> neither have I seen GNU/*BSD (has anyone applied the GNU toolset to the BSD
>> kernel, and who survived= the ensuing licence flame war) . http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/http://www.debian.org/ports/netbsd/http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/
It's certainly not
>> in common usage even when referring to those operating systems.
Oh it is, but those operating systems are different to netbsd and freebsd.
Secondly the
>> reverse is also true, I could take much of the the GNU toolset and replace
>> them whilst still running a Linux system. Does this mean that if, for
>> example I dropped the switched the GNU toolset for the BSD one, I'd have to
>> call the resulting system BSD/Linux??
GNU's not a toolset, it's an operating system - but you can replace
coretuils, shell, libraries, etc with say, Busybox, and have a non-GNU
Linux system.
>> The easiest way to clear this up is for you to define "Operating System" to
>> me; I don't belive that userland tools are part of an OS, do you?
GNU isn't a set of userland tools. It contains a shell, compiler,
libraries and coreutils, as defined in the POSIX standard.
Certainly, a kernel does not an operating system make.
>>> Progress on the Hurd is slow - when there are already several better
>>> working kernels for the GNU system, it is difficult to get a critical
>>> mass of developers to work on another kernel, when there are more
>>> important free software projects to hack on.
>> Also can you define the "GNU system" to me please, is it anything with the
>> GPL attached, or just GCC?
The GNU Operating system - base level - GNU Coreutils, GNU Bash, glibc,
gcc. Hurd.
Replace Hurd with Linux = GNU + Linux, or GNU/Linux.
Coreutils:-
chgrp chown chmod cp dd df dir dircolors install
ln ls mkdir mkfifo
mknod mv rm rmdir shred sync touch vdir Text utilities
cat cksum comm
csplit cut expand fmt fold head join md5sum nl od
paste ptx pr
sha1sum sort split sum tac tail tr tsort unexpand
uniq wc basename
chroot date dirname du echo env expr factor false groups
hostid id
link logname nice nohup pathchk pinky printenv printf pwd
readlink
seq sleep stat stty tee test true tty uname unlink
users who whoami yes
And no, applying the GPL to something doesn't make it a part of the GNU
System.
http://directory.fsf.org/GNU/ lists all pieces of the GNU OS.
GNOME is part of the GNU OS :)
matt